Shopkeepers who work with online retail commonly come across several sales channels that can be incorporated into their strategy, as is the case of marketplaces, a way to increase the reach of the brand and even make it a strong sales conversion channel.
The expansion of the Marketplace here in Brazil began in 2006, when companies already active in online retail with large traffic, increased the assortment of products offered and added smaller stores - and specialized - in a particular niche or segment, in order to sell in their e-commerce. Following a similar line to Mercado Livre.
Since then the marketplace has become a significant part of the online sales movement for companies of all sizes.online sales movements of companies of all sizes. So much so that, according to the 42nd Edition of the Webshopper survey conducted in the first half of 2020 by Ebit|Nielsen, marketplaces had a share of approximately 78% in the total e-commerce revenues in the country.
This proves the consolidation of the strategy in the market and the strong acceptance of these channels among consumers. Today, the marketplace is inserted by retailers in their strategies in two ways: entering as a partner in the structure of already consolidated companies and offering their product mix. Or by establishing their own marketplace structure, becoming the environment where other retailers can offer their products.
With the various players available in the market, the advances in technology and the emergence of solutions that make this business model more accessible, marketplaces have been able to evolve a lot - especially in the last three years. Which, consequently brought about variations in their segment and product offeringsbased on the online mall's target audience.
Marketplaces are currently divided into four types:
- B2B Marketplace: platforms that intermediate the buying and selling relationship between companies and suppliers, the famous business to business;
- B2C Marketplace: companies sell directly to the final consumer, these are the most common types of marketplaces and counts with the most successful portals in various segments such as Dafiti, Americanas and Magalu;
- C2C Marketplace: mode that allows ordinary consumers to act as small merchants, selling from products/services to other consumers;
- Niche marketplace: just as there are marketplaces that bet on product variety or differentiated business model, niche marketplaces bring together businesses from a specialized segment.
Thus, brands of all segments and sizes can adopt this type of e-commerce platform taking into account its characteristics to increase sales, reach more end customers, follow market trends or just get stronger.
Visibility, low cost, security and practicality are some points that summarize the role of the marketplace in online retail, bringing benefits to both retailers and customers. Both sides win.
But it is worth remembering that managing a marketplace is totally different from managing a single e-commerce, after all, the dynamics of the channel has its own characteristics. There are several specific terms, requirements that change according to the chosen partner, each of these characteristics needs to be understood so that when you choose to insert this channel in your sales strategy, the implementation (if this is the case) is positive and brings results.
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